Buckle



July 18, 1939. J. B. FREYSINGER BUCKLE Filed Nov. 16, 1937 Patented July 18, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BUCKLE icut Application November 16, 1937, Serial No. 174,756

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a buckle particularly adapted for use on wearing apparel,

On wearing apparel wherein belts are provided with a high finish such as patent leather, the belt buckles are now provided with bevelled edges or rollers to prevent damage to the finish of the leather and allow for easy sliding of the belt as it is being tensioned. With these present types of buckles, the bevelled edge does not present sufficient turning surface, and the buckles which carry rollers are not only expensive to manufacture but the seam of the roller tends to become distorted whereupon one of the edges may catch, causing the other edge to project and mar the surface of the strap.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the foregoing objections with a buckle which is inexpensive to manufacture and which provides sufficient turning surface to prevent marding of the surface of the belt.

A further object is a buckle of this type in which the belt body is stamped from a single piece of sheet metal and the curved guiding surface formed integral therewith, thereby preventing displacement of same.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing wherein is illustrated one embodiment which the present invention may take:

Figure l is a perspective view of a buckle showing one embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross section of the embodiment shown in Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a buckle showing another embodiment of the invention,

In accordance with the present invention, the buckle comprises a metal body I 6 having forward and rear end bars 12 and I3, side bars l4, and a center bar l5. There is pivotally mounted on the center bar l5 a securing finger IS with the free end resting on the forward bar I2. The body part is preferably stamped from fiat sheet metal, and, when stamped, the forward end bar I2 is provided with a rearwardly extending tongue which is of greater depth than the bar l2, as indicated by the-dotted line H, and which is then reversely curved to form a cylindrical guiding member l8. When so curved, the outside periphcry of the cylindrical guide I8 is tangent to the bottom face 20 of bar l2 and contacts the top face 2 I, as at 22, thus providing an unbroken surface co-extensive with face 20 and of unbroken curvature between the point of tangency and the point of contact. Moreover, the tongue forming guide member [8 is so proportioned that the point of contact 22 will be forward of a diameter of member I 8 perpendicular to the face 20 at the point of tangency, thus assuring a continuous curvature throughout the which a belt might be curved were it completely reversed upon itself when being tensioned. It is obvious from the foregoing construction that when the belt is lead through the buckle it rests against a continuous unbroken surface formed by face 20 and member l8 and a continuously curved surface throughout the curvature of the belt. This surface may be highly polished to enable the belt to be moved easily thereon. It will be observed that at no time is the belt moved over any straight edge.

The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3 shows a concave belt in which the cylindrical guide member 30 is disposed beneath the forward end bar 3| of the buckle, as distinguished from being disposed above the buckle as in Fi 1. The rear bar 32 of Fig. 3 is further provided with a guide member 33 under which the loose end of the belt may be passed in order to hold it in place. It is apparent that the loose ends will always contact a surface of curvature and thus prevent any cutting or scratching of same.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. A buckle of the character described, comprising a one-piece body part of sheet metal, said body part having side bars, end bars and a center bar, a securing finger pivotally supported on the center bar and having its free end resting on one of the end bars, said end bar having oppositely disposed faces and an integral rearwardly extending tongue reversely curved upon itself to constitute a cylindrical guide member, the outside surface of said guide member being tangential to one of the faces of said bar and contacting the reverse face thereof, thus providing an unbroken surface coextensive With the tangential face of the end bar and of continuous curvature from the point of tangency to the point of contact with the reverse face of the end bar.

2. A buckle of the character described, comprising a one-piece sheet metal body part having side bars, end bars and a center bar, a securing finger pivotally mounted on the center bar and having its free end resting on one endbar, said end bar having oppositely disposed flat surfaces and an integral tongue extending rearwardiy therefrom and reversely curved upon itself to constitute a guide member, the outer surface of said guide member being tangent to one of said flat surfaces and contacting the other fiat surface at a point disposed forwardly of a diameter of the curved member perpendicular to the fiat surface at the point of tangency, thereby presenting a co -extensive unbroken surface from the flat surface to 180 from the point of tangency of the curved and flat surfaces.

JOHN B. FREYSINGER. 

